


Sketch

by peskylilcritter



Series: pesky does nano prep [14]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-22 03:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8270315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peskylilcritter/pseuds/peskylilcritter
Summary: Obi-Wan undercover as a clone.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EclipseMidnight (EternalEclipse)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalEclipse/gifts).



One of the shinies crouches down while everyone else keeps going; Cody nearly falls over him before he sees him.

"The hell are you doing, shiny?" he says, bending to grab the kid's arm and pull him along. "There’s klankers following us, we don’t have time to look at pretty rocks."

The shiny nods, clearly cowed and starts running again. Cody stays by the kid's side. Can't risk a brother getting lost because he’s too curious for his own good.

***

Rex doesn’t like camping. The General seems to enjoy it a great deal but for Rex it’s a logistical nightmare and he doesn’t sleep well when he’s not surrounded by walls.

He’s wandering around after dinner, making sure everything’s as it should be when he sees one of the shinies at the edge of camp. The kid is sitting a few steps away from everyone else, focused on something on the ground in front of him.

Rex wanders over, intent on either getting the kid to tell him why he can’t sleep or scolding him for wandering off.

And then he sees what the shiny is so focused on.

"Hey, kid," he says; when he gets close enough that he doesn’t have to shout. "What’s so interesting about those bugs?"

The kid's head jerks up but with the helmet on Rex can’t see his expression.

Instead of talking the kid lifts his hands and starts signing. /Never seen this kind before. Haven’t read about them either./

"You read a lot then?" Rex asks, accompanying the words with his hands. The kid can clearly hear him but when someone talks with their hands it’s polite to reply with your hands. Rex just finds signing easier when he speaks the words as he signs them.

/Yes,/ the kid says. /I like knowing things. But I didn’t have time to read up on this planet before we got here./

"Yeah, we normally get more time, even if it’s only transit. This deployment kind of got sprung on us. Say, what’s your name?"

The kid signs a series of numbers followed by /Don’t have a name yet. This is my first deployment./

"Ah, well, don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll get one soon." Rex lets his hands fall back to his sides, lifts his head to look at the stars. "Listen, you should get some sleep. Tomorrow’s gonna be a busy day."

The kid nods. /Yes, sir. You have a good night, Captain./

"You too, kid," Rex says and leaves the kid to his bugs.

***

Rex mentions the kid to Cody the next day.

Cody shrugs. "I got a whole batch of shinies assigned along with the mission. Half of them don’t have names yet and there’s two that talk with their hands. And if he's that interested in the local wildlife, he might know something useful."

"Yeah. But something about him bothers me."

***

The next time Rex sees the shiny, the kids managed to get hold of a graphite stick and a sketchpad and he's sketching a small bird.

Rex stays back until the bird flies off, then sits down next to the kid.

After a few minutes the kid puts down the sketchpad to sign /Can I help you, Captain?/

Rex ignores the question. "How are you doing, kid? First time out's never the way you expect it to be."

The kid stiffens. /I'm fine, sir. Has my performance not been satisfactory?/

"Relax, kid." Rex shakes his head. "I'm just checking if you’re ok."

/Thank you, sir. I'm doing well. Is there anything else?/

"No. But if you need anything, you can talk to me."

***

The shiny knocks on his own vambrace to announce himself.

Cody looks up from the map. "Yes?"

/There’s something following us, sir. I think it’s a pack of some kind of predatory mammal but I can’t be sure until I see one. Sir, from the tracks I’ve seen so far, most of the predators on this planet are pretty big./

"Alright. And how long do you think we’ve got until they catch up with us?"

The shiny hesitates, helmet tilting as he thinks. /Well, that depends on the type of predator they are. If they mean to outlast us we'll be fine. If they hunt us down were in trouble. Sir./

"Thank you, trooper. I'll alert the General. You go find Rex and tell him what you told me. He’ll know what to do."

***

It turns out that blaster fire is enough to scare these things off.

Obi-Wan can’t get close enough to get any real idea of what kind of animals they are but they look feline. And they have really large teeth.

He doesn’t really want to hurt them, but given the choice between one of these animals and a clone, he'll choose the clone every time. The soldiers around him are his, and he'll keep them as safe as he can.

The battle is short, and none of the soldiers even get injured, to Obi-Wan’s relief. There's not even clean-up after, so he returns his blasters to his belt and goes to find somewhere he can sit down and sketch.

***

Rex wants to talk to the shiny who knows so much but between one thing and another he doesn’t find the time for three days.

"Hey, kid," Rex says, to announce himself. "Bugs again?"

The shiny shakes his head and lifts his hands toward Rex. They're cupped around something Rex can’t see so he takes a few steps closer. It's snake.

Rex sits on the urge to back away and instead makes himself ask, "How's it going?"

The kid lifts his hands, still cradling the snake, and shrugs.

"Right. Gotta have your hands free to talk. Well, when you're not cuddling snakes, I'd be interested to know how you figured we were being followed. No one else noticed."

The kid nods.

Rex leaves him to it. He doesn’t much like snakes anyway.

***

The shiny finds him later that day, jogging up to walk next to Rex.

/Sir,/ the kid's hands say. /You wanted to know how I knew about the pack?/ he pauses. /No snakes this time./

Rex grins, glad the slow flush on his cheeks is hidden behind the helmet. "Go ahead, kid. I'm all ears."

For next half hour the kid talks, a long rambling explanation full of words Rex suspects belong in scientific journals, that Rex can only half follow. The kid's obvious enthusiasm is endearing and the conversation makes the time pass quicker.

They switch topics once the kid's done with his explanation and end up talking for the better part of four hours.

***

"Why does that kid not have a name yet?"

It's ridiculous to be obsessing over a shiny’s name but here he is.

"Why does it bother you so much?" Cody asks.

Rex scowls. "I don’t know. But I talked to him today and honestly, I don’t get how he made it off Kamino without a name. We don’t get shinies with that much personality without being named by the time they've gone through training."

He hears Cody sigh and turns to look at him. "Rex, do you have a crush on this kid?"

"No." Rex hesitates. "Well, not the kind of crush you’re talking about. I just- We talked for a couple hours today and he really knows a lot about plants and animals. And I mean, we spent half an hour talking about weather patterns on a dozen different planets. A few days ago I found him sketching a bird and yesterday he was cuddling a snake. Apparently he'd never seen that pattern of scales before so he wanted a closer look."

"You sound like you’ve got a crush. Wait. You mean he just picked up a snake because he thought it looked pretty?" Cody sounds appalled.

Rex nods. "Yeah. Pretty much. And he thinks bugs are fascinating. Told me all about the ones he's seen since we landed. He's been keeping track of the different kinds."

"Wow," Cody says, eyebrows raised. "Bugs? Really?"

***

Rex finds the shiny sketching plants and bugs and birds five more times before they reach their destination. By then all the other shinies have been named, but this one's still nameless. It bothers Rex. A lot.

They're only hours out when he decides to take matters into his own hands. The kid needs a name before he goes into battle the first time. Going into battle without even a name seems like a great way to get yourself killed. Rex isn’t normally superstitious but he's not budging on this one. He knows that unnamed shines don’t often make it home.

***

The kid is keeping pace with the rest of them but his focus is on something in his hands. Rex falls into step beside him.

"Hey, kid. Whatcha got there?"

The kid lifts one hand to finger-spell /Bug./

Rex takes a look. It’s small, barely the size of his smallest fingernail, and a shiny green.

"Listen, I think you should pick a name. Before you go into battle."

The kid lifts his head and turns to look at Rex. The bug takes off, nearly hits Rex' helmet on the way past. /Why?/

"Unnamed shinies usually don’t survive their first battle. So. pick name. Please." Rex turns his head toward the front again and speeds up to get back to Cody.

***

The shiny finds him after their first run-in with droids.

/Sir./

"Yes?" Rex asks. The medic's still working on his arm so his question is verbal only.

The kid salutes and rattles off his number, making Rex raise his eyebrows, but then he adds, /And my name is Sketch. Reporting for duty, sir./

Rex grins. "Good to meet you, Sketch. Now go find a medic. That thigh needs bandaging."

/Yes, sir./

***

Obi-Wan peels himself out of his armor and finds himself torn between relief and an odd sense of vulnerability. In the week or so he's been wearing it he’s gotten used to being covered and protected at all times and to remove it now is... Unsettling.

He showers, eats, writes his report to the council, and wonders at the way his thoughts keep straying to Rex.


End file.
